Facebook Envisions Using Brain Waves to Type Words – Bloomberg

Facebook Inc.’s research unit Building 8 is working to make it possible for people to type using signals from their brains, part of the lab’s broader effort to free people from their phones.Regina Dugan, hired from Alphabet Inc. last year to oversee the lab, said that within “a few years’ time” Facebook aims to develop a system that can type at 100 words per minute, just from monitoring the brain, without using any kind of implant. The company is working with outside academics on the issue.This would give “the ability to text a friend without taking out your phone or the ability to send a quick email without leaving the party,” Dugan said Wednesday at the social network operator’s F8 developer conference. The technology may not require thinking in actual letters, she said. The lab also is working on a way for people to hear through their skin.